Pannan is Guizhou province’s first 1GW power plant. It has seriously polluted Baiguo town, where coal and coal ash are dumped freely everywhere. Meanwhile, a coal washing plant directly discharges black waste water into the Tuochang River, at the head of the Pearl River system, turning the waters upstream and downstream completely different colours. This is a chilling view of China’s new natural landscape: on one side, a severely polluted river, and on the other side, a mountain valley slowly being filled in by coal ash.